Coal and petroleum, which are major natural resources in the industry, are used as raw materials for the synthesis of various compounds, while also being used as fossil fuels. In particular, distillation of petroleum can produce various materials such as alkanes, alkenes, etc., and these materials can be used as synthetic raw materials for the synthesis of various materials. For example, various materials such as polymers, drugs, and food additives are synthesized from petroleum. However, there are problems in that carbon dioxide and harmful materials are produced during the process of petroleum consumption and that the world's petroleum reserves are limited.
Accordingly, studies have focused on the substitution of petroleum as a synthetic raw material, and in particular, biomass has been highlighted among the studies. Biomass refers to a material that can be prepared from plants, for example, renewable plant resources such as corn, bean, and sugar cane, by a chemical or biological method.
Specifically, saccharides (e.g., glucose, fructose, etc.) can be obtained from plants such as sugar cane. The thus-obtained saccharides can be used as foods, and various compounds, e.g., homoserine-based compounds, can be obtained by fermenting the saccharides using microorganisms. Homoserine is an amino acid having the structure of 2-amino-4-hydroxybutanoic acid, and can be used as an intermediate for the preparation of methionine, threonine, isoleucine, etc. Homoserine can be converted into a lactone form or the 4-hydroxy moiety of homoserine can be substituted, for example, the structures of homoserine, homoserine lactone, O-acetylhomoserine, O-succinyl homoserine, homoserine lactone hydrochloride (HCl), homoserine lactone hydrobromide, etc., are possible.
For enhancing the added value of the homoserine-based compounds, gamma-butyrolactone or derivatives thereof, furanone, dialkyl succinate, etc. may be prepared by lactonization or hydrolysis. For this purpose, a process of removing an amine group from the homoserine-based compounds, i.e., a deamination process, is necessary.
As methods for performing the deamination process by an industrial chemical process, a method of using a catalyst, a method of using an enzyme, etc. have been suggested. However, the effect of the method of using a catalyst has not been confirmed and the method of using an enzyme is not suitable for large-scale industrial production.
In particular, gamma-butyrolactone is an important intermediate used for the preparation of a N-pyrrolidone derivative, which is used as an intermediate for the synthesis of polymers, pharmaceuticals, etc., and there is a growing demand for gamma-butyrolactone. Gamma-Butyrolactone can be prepared by dehydrogenation of 1,4-butanediol or hydrogenation of maleic anhydride or succinic anhydride in a petrochemical process. However, the above methods have problems in that the production cost may increase due to the significant fluctuation in the price of raw materials, and thus there is a need for the development of a new material to be used for the preparation of gamma-butyrolactone.
On the other hand, 1,4-butanediol is widely used in the industry, and in particular, it is a very important material used as a synthetic raw material for the synthesis of polybutylene terephthalate resin, polyurethane, gamma-butyrolactone, tetrahydrofuran, etc. 1,4-Butanediol is mainly prepared by a petrochemical process, and for example, it may be produced from acetylene, butadiene, propylene oxide, maleic anhydride, etc. However, it has drawbacks in that the production cost may increase due to the fluctuating price of raw materials and that its manufacturing process is complex and requires a huge facility. Accordingly, there is a need for the development of a process for preparing 1,4-butanediol from raw materials other than the petroleum-dependent raw materials.
Under these circumstances, the present inventors have made many efforts to find a process for preparing useful compounds from the homoserine-based compounds, which can be used as intermediates for preparing important compounds in the industry. As a result, they have discovered a process for treating homoserine-based compounds which is advantageous in the large-scale industrial production due to the simple process and high yield, thereby completing the present disclosure.